Playing Catch Up

Been slacking on summer miles? Do what you can in the time you have before the season starts.

People use plenty of excuses for skipping runs, some valid, most not: It’s too hot, your family is on vacation, there’s no one else to run with, your legs are tired, a Harry Potter marathon just started, you have to install an air conditioner, you have to work. The list goes on and on.

Summer training is crucial in the build-up for a great high school cross country season. But if you find August fast approaching and realize your training has been sporadic at best, fear not. All is not lost.

Running Times spoke with coach Danny Rapcienski (the kids call him Coach Rap), who leads the cross country squad at Monmouth Regional High School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, about what to do if you are behind on your running.

Be Consistent

“The first thing I’m going to tell them to do,” Coach Rap says of a runner who is joining summer training late, “is to be consistent. Give the team as many days as possible running.” Just because you missed some training doesn’t mean you can’t be committed starting now.

You’ll Need Patience

If you’ve really slacked off in the early part of the summer, you might only be able to start running four days a week at 20 minutes a run. Even though you’ll be watching some of your teammates running high mileage, you have to try to be patient. If you try to do too much too soon, the chances of injury are much higher.

Communication is Key

Come clean with your coach. Sure, he or she may be upset if you didn’t run all summer, but you don’t want to jump in with a training group that’s hammering. Coach Rap says that he’d rather know that you didn’t train than have you lie about the mileage you did. That way, he can adjust the training and slowly build up the intensity. Or, if you ran more than prescribed, tell the coach that, too, so he or she isn’t taking it too easy on you if you’re adapting well to the training. Speak up if you feel like you can handle more, but be truthful about your summer.

Take A Chance

At some point, you have to find out where you actually are and see what your body can handle. This doesn’t mean you take a chance at running 60 miles in a week if you’ve been doing 35. Instead, it means jumping up a group for a workout and seeing how you react to it. You might surprise yourself. Coach Rap likes to give a kid a chance in a speed workout or a hill workout. “Mentally,” he says, “kids want to see how fast they are. If they feel good about their speed, then I can get them psyched about running.”

Do, however, tread carefully after the workout. You want to feel recovered by the time you’re supposed to work out again. This is where talking to your coaches comes in again. If they don’t know you’re tired, they may get excited about your big workout and throw you too much mileage. You might have to back off and run slower on an easy day even if your teammates are running more.

Adjust Your Goals, But Don’t Abandon Them

If, at the beginning of the summer, your goal was to be on varsity, keep that goal—but don’t expect instant gratification. When you’re setting goals, go after a big one (like making varsity), but set little ones along the way, too. If you didn’t start running until the end of July, your big goal might not happen right away. So instead of freaking out that you’re on the JV squad at the first race, make a few manageable goals to hit. Maybe you plan to be the third-best runner on JV. Once you’ve done that, set the goal of being the JV team’s No. 1 runner at the next race. If you can be tops on JV, hopefully you’ll be able to make the jump to varsity next. Having the small stepping stones along the way can build your confidence.

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We asked Coach Rap to help build a three-week training plan for a runner who missed out on summer training. If you got in a few runs or stayed in shape by playing a lot of other sports, this plan could work well for you.

Coach Rap says, "It's a little aggressive, but assuming the runner has been doing something over the summer, I think most could handle it. I'd advise the coach and athlete to stay in communication, because if anything in the plan is easy or too hard, it can be adjusted. The runner has to listen to their body and trust the system."

For this plan, easy pace means you can run and would still be able to hold a conversation. The strides should be run at about 80 to 90 percent of your top speed. Accelerations should see you build up to top speed in the first 10 seconds, hold it until 15 seconds and then slow down the last five seconds. Tempo pace is, as Running Times and Runner's World defines it, "comfortably hard." This means it's a pace that shouldn't make your legs hurt too bad, but you should be breathing hard and it's likely you wouldn't be able to hold a conversation but could quickly say, "This is hard."